@maheshone • @maheshone

10 WordPress Settings & Features That You Should Know [Level 3.0]

December 22, 2015@maheshone

Level 2.0 was all about two menus: Settings and Tools. And today we are moving on to Level 3.0: WordPress Themes and Plugins. Do you know what makes themes and plugins interesting? Both of them are developed by third-parties.

Image Credit: Flickr

The idea of this article is to explain what different WordPress theme and plugin settings means to me and you. First things first. There's every chance that you will come across few terms like WordPress Framework, Child Theme (also known as Skin), and WordPress Hooks to name a few. So let us just explore those terms before getting started.

WordPress, Themes, Framework, Child Theme

WordPress is like the engine of your car, WordPress Framework is like the frame and body of your car, and a Child Theme is like the paint job done on your car. A decade back there was no such thing called WordPress Framework or Child Theme because then it was all about WordPress plus a Theme. That is, we install WordPress on our web server and install a theme of our choice. That's it. In the past few years, WordPress has evolved and became more popular with a developer base like never before. So, it led to the rise of WordPress Frameworks. That is, WordPress theme makers started building a foundation (known as a framework) for their themes. And it means all the themes developed by a theme maker has the same core features (in terms of design, security, SEO. etc.). It also enables developers to easily create a child theme (or a skin) for a specific framework without having to code from scratch. WordPress Hooks lets you change the default functions or add your own functions without changing the core WordPress files. You can go here to learn more about it (if you're not a coder then I hope it won't make you sick).

9 WordPress Settings & Features That You Should Know [Level 2.0]

December 2, 2015@maheshone

WordPress is a jungle. Seriously. When I first planned to write this series of WordPress posts, the idea was to get some essential WordPress topics published on my blog so that I could link to it from related blog posts and can supplement few upcoming blog posts as well. And then I realized it's not easy. I mean, it became a struggle to keep it short and simple as there are a lot of things surrounding even a tiny WordPress option or a menu. It's kind of difficult to decide what to include and what not to. So, make sure that you take enough time and explore each feature/settings by yourself --- especially if you have zero experience with WordPress. Now as you might have already imagined, this is the second part of my WordPress Settings & Features That You Should Know series. Just in case, if you missed the first one, here you go:

Don't Miss: 12 WordPress Settings & Features That You Should Know [Level 1.0]

I split this series into 3 levels as the idea is to explain all the WordPress settings that you see when you first login to your WordPress-powered site. Today, I've picked only two settings and it's all about two menus (and its submenus). There's every chance that you won't have to visit these menus often as they're like "set and forget" kind of options. And do keep in mind that you shouldn't play with these options unless you know exactly what it does to your WordPress site.

12 WordPress Settings & Features That You Should Know [Level 1.0]

December 1, 2015@maheshone

WordPress has two flavors, WordPress.com (the free hosted version — like example.wordpress.com) and WordPress.org (the self-hosted version — like maheshone.com). WordPress.com is a version of WordPress.org that is hosted by Automattic. WordPress.org is the self-hosted version of WordPress which means that when we install the WordPress software on our web server, we own it and manage it.

Don't Miss: WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org: The Ultimate Comparison

I will be focusing on WordPress.org, and yes, this blog is powered by WordPress.org and is an example of the self-hosted version of WordPress. When it comes to WordPress installation and setup, I (probably you too) have noticed a ton of WordPress tutorials and guides that says how to start a WordPress blog in 10 minutes or even 5 minutes. Basically, it's all about how to buy a domain name, web hosting plan, and install WordPress. The reality is that it doesn't work that way as there are a lot of other things that you should know and do after installing WordPress. It's not really true if someone tells you that blogging on WordPress is easy, and not complicated. Because starting and maintaining a blog takes time, effort, and some money too. Of course, you can start a WordPress blog in less than 5 minutes but it will only look like this and never like this.

The 13 Best Google Chrome Extensions I Can’t Live Without (Plus 13 I Can Live Without)

October 9, 2015@maheshone

Google Chrome is much more than just a browser and that's how it became the web's favorite internet browser. And it was perhaps the first cloud-integrated web browser. That is, everything you do inside Google Chrome was automatically synced across all your computers (and today mobile devices as well). And there are literally hundreds of thousands of Google Chrome extensions that can make this super-browser even more powerful.

Don't Miss: Productivity Tools: The Fantastic Ten To Skyrocket Your Productivity

The good thing is, there must be an extension to make Chrome work the way you want. For instance, I often end up accidentally close a pinned tab. So, I can install an extension called Lock Tab to prevent it (I'm not using it though). The only problem with Chrome is that... it's so resource hungry that it eats up your computer's memory (RAM) in a big way. So make sure that you don't overload your browser with a ton of add-ons or extensions. It will not only slow down your computer but also make it a mess as most of the Chrome extensions can access your browsing history (or much more). So it's always a good idea to install only the trusted ones. Today, I have sorted some of the best Google Chrome extensions and apparently they are also my personal favorites.

13 Google Chrome Extensions I Can't Live Without

Here's a quick reminder. It's really impossible to come up with a definite list of Google Chrome extensions as its selection depends upon a person and his/her nature of work. For instance, if you are a gamer or a graphic designer then you may not find much helpful extensions. But if you are a blogger or even a writer then you would find at least few of them helpful. That's why this is a list of my favorite extensions. And I have divided the list into two: the first 13 are the ones that I can't live without and it's enabled all the time. And the next 13 are the ones that I activate on-demand --- that is, when I want to do something with it. If you're looking for a comprehensive list then check out: Top 50 Google Chrome Productivity Extensions and Top 30 Google Chrome SEO Extensions.

11 Reasons Why I Love Dropbox — And You Should Too

May 28, 2015@maheshone

Dropbox was never my favorite cloud storage service. In fact, I never even used it until 2013. My preferred cloud storage services were SkyDrive (now known as OneDrive) and Google Drive. I have always prefered everything Microsoft/Google as I didn't want to depend upon different companies for different products. My mistake!

Don't Miss: OneDrive vs. Dropbox vs. Google Drive vs. Everything Else

Back then, I relied a lot on Google --- Gmail (for email), Google Calendar (for calendar), Google Notebook (for note-taking), Google Tasks (for task management), Google Drive (for cloud storage), and Google Reader (for news reading). And, one fine day, I realized that it's not a good idea to rely on only one brand for "all things". How? Because Google discontinued Google Notebook and Google Reader (R.I.P.). And Google Tasks too is on the verge of discontinuation as they are no longer updating that service. In fact, they discontinued a lot of nice Google products. Today, I don't care about how many brands I'm relying on. Instead, I just try to make sure that they offer the best product in their category. So, I replaced Google Calendar with Sunrise, Google Notebook with Evernote, Google Tasks with Todoist, Google Drive with Dropbox, and Google Reader with Feedly.

Read: My Favorite Internet Tools, Software & Apps

All the above companies excel at what they are doing --- because it's their bread and butter. Today, I just wanted to share with you 11 reasons why I love Dropbox.

The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Handbook — 201+ Resources, Tips, Guides & Tools

March 23, 2015Handbooks, @maheshone

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is evolving. And the good thing is... you no longer need a ton of backlinks to rank higher on search engines. In fact, all the Google algorithmic updates that happened over the past several years were to filter out low-quality websites. For instance, there was an algorithmic update to penalize content farms and websites that were engaged in spamming. And there was another update to penalize web pages with slow loading speed or one with lot of ads. Here is a comprehensive list of SEO resources that I have collected over the past several years. I have made sure that only the best resources that are comprehensive and simple to understand remain in this list. And to make it easier to consume I have organized all the resources into the following categories and sub-categories.

Over 71 Gmail Tips & Tricks To Make You A “Gmail Ninja”

February 18, 2015@maheshone

Gmail is perhaps the web's favorite email service with over 500 million users. And I started using Gmail ever since they launched the service, back in 2004 and became very much obsessed with it. So today, I'm sharing over 71 Gmail tips and tricks (including some less known features, secrets, and settings) to enhance your Google Mail experience. I'm sure it might take a while for you to read through and get to the end. But once you do, there will be no looking back. You will change the way you used Gmail. All for the better. Guaranteed!

Gmail Tips & Tricks --- Click To Scroll

When Gmail was launched the key features that distinguished it from its rivals were --- Search (with an advanced function), 1 GB Free Storage (it was huge at that time because Hotmail was offering only 2 MB and Yahoo 4 MB), Conversation View, Labels, Archive feature, Auto-refresh, Auto-address Completion, Powerful Mail & Spam Filters, and a great user interface (thanks to AJAX) with no banner ads.